It’s back and there’s still time to enter! The Purbeck Valley Folk Festival (25-28 August) is celebrating the UK folk scene with its very own talent contest, Purbeck Rising.
Started in response to the hundreds of applications received from bands and artists wanting to play the Festival, Purbeck Rising offers an opportunity for new acts to play at the family festival with a main stage slot, a day’s studio recording and much more up for grabs.
Organiser Catherine Burke says:
“Purbeck Rising is a great opportunity for bands to get involved in the festival. It’s not just for local bands – we’ve had entrants from across Europe. And although it’s a great chance for up and coming young bands to get noticed, we don’t discriminate with age – one of our finalists last year was a cappella group ‘No Direction’ which is a four-piece with members much closer to pension than pocket money!”
The competition has been a springboard for previous finalists, such as Bournemouth-based trio Kadia who have since released their debut album East of Alexandria last year and seen their profile grow rapidly since entering Purbeck Rising in 2013.
Kadia return to play the Purbeck Valley Folk Festival on the Friday.
Catherine added: “Quite a few of our past Purbeck Rising finalists have gone on to start making waves in the local and national folk scene. Kadia is one of note who, since entering our radar have gone on to perform on the main stages at Purbeck, Folk on the Quay and Wimborne Folk Festivals and play a number of headline gigs at Bournemouth Folk Club.
“And Kelly Oliver was a 2014 Purbeck Rising finalist, who has been touring nationally and returns to Purbeck this year to play one of our main stages. The standard of finalists was so high last year that we’ve asked a lot of them back to play sets at the festival this year.”
To enter this year’s Purbeck Rising artists should email a link to a YouTube video to info@purbeckvalleyfolkfestival.co.uk before 10 July with the subject ‘Purbeck Rising’.
The best 10 acts will be put up for public vote between 20-27 July, with the five most popular acts going through to a live final at Purbeck Valley Folk Festival on the Saturday afternoon of 27 August.
The five finalists get weekend tickets to Purbeck Valley Folk Festival for themselves and a guest each. The contest will be decided by public vote and a panel of experts with the winning act invited back to play a main stage set next year, as well as a spot at the Folk on the Quay festival in Poole in June 2017 and a day’s recording at Sizzle Studio in Bournemouth.
And tickets are selling quickly for the festival’s annual summer outing, which takes place in the beautiful Purbeck Hills, from Friday to Sunday, 25-28 August.
With over 70 folk, roots and world music acts – including festival favourites The Proclaimers – have been confirmed for this unique event on the Jurassic Coast.
Further major headliners include BBC Folk Award winning folk supergroup Eliza Carthy & the Wayward Band and the brilliant Ivor-Novello award-winning Villagers at the August Bank Holiday event, which is fast becoming one of the UK’s top family-friendly music festivals.
Weekend tickets (Fri-Sun) include free camping and are on sale now at £110 (youth £55, child £30). Day tickets from £50.
For further information, visit purbeckvalleyfolkfestival.co.